of his element, everywhere at sea, in the
clouds, adrift, or by whatever word _utter ignorance_ and
_incapacity_ are to be described. In society and in the work of life,
he finds himself beaten by the youth whom at college he despised as
frivolous or abhorred as profligate."

Take the preparation of our youth for their duties as citizens. Here,
again, a knowledge of political and social economy is indispensable. We
have seen the attention it receives; and while two lessons a week for one
hour, and that only to the senior class in its last term, are given to
American citizens on the Constitution of the United States and on
International Law, _none whatever is given on the science of Government
throughout the entire course of five years_!

I might go through the whole course of studies with similar results. Here
and there, in this or that class, a small amount of attention is given to
some of the sciences omitted in the other classes; but the entire record
is one of the most disheartening character.

_Words! words!_ engross almost exclusively the attention of the students
from the hour they enter the College until they leave it; and it is not to
the five-and-twenty graduates the palm of useful industry should be
awarded, but to the many who, in discouragement, abandon a course which
tends to _unfit_ them for the great battle of life!

What, then, are the reasons generally assigned for this perverse
conventionalism of devoting the time of youth to the acquirement of dead
words, to the unavoidable exclusion of nearly every thing that is of
value? First, we are told that we can not understand the English language
without a knowledge of Latin, from which it is derived. The inaccuracy of
this pretension is at once made manifest by reference to Webster, where he
states:

"That English is composed of--

"_First._ Saxon and Danish words of Teutonic and Gothic origin.

"_Second._ British or Welsh, Cornish and Amoric, which may be
considered as of Celtic origin.

"_Third._ Norman, a mixture of French and Gothic.

"_Fourth._ Latin, a language formed on the Celtic and Teutonic.

"_Fifth._ French, chiefly Latin corrupted, but with a mixture of
Celtic.

"_Sixth._ Greek formed on the Celtic and Teutonic, with some Coptic.

"_Seventh._ A few words directly from the Italian, Spanish, German,
and other languages of the Continent.

"_Eighth._ A